Bottle cap

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a bottle cap configured to open and close a mouth of a bottle. The bottle cap is easily may be easily removed with only small force. When the bottle cap is fixed to fit a twisting groove formed at the bottle cap on an edge or corner of a supporting object such as a table and a bottle is rotated in such a way that great force is applied to the bottle cap, even a person who has a weak grip may easily remove the bottle cap with a relatively smaller force than that used with a general bottle cap. Also, the bottle cap further includes a sound generator to notify that the bottle cap has been removed by generating a sound when removing is performed at a blind spot.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0184852, filed on Dec. 23, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a bottle cap configured to open and close the mouth of bottle, and more particularly, to a bottle cap capable of being easily removed with only small force.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Generally, in the case of a bottle with a bottle cap that is formed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), glass, iron, or aluminum, the bottle cap is strongly fastened to the bottle and is rotated to be separated from a bottle coupling portion when separating the bottle cap from the bottle coupling portion.

A general bottle cap includes a plurality of protrusions or grooves formed at an outer circumferential surface of the bottle cap in a longitudinal direction to increase frictional force to be easily separated from a bottle coupling portion, thereby easily removing the bottle cap.

However, although adult men have no great difficulty in removing bottle caps, children, women, or the old who are weak have difficulty removing bottle caps. When removing a bottle cap of a bottle filled with viscous materials, since it is not easy even for adults who have enough strength to remove the bottle cap, they remove the bottle cap while covering the same with rubber or a towel.

PRIOR ART DOCUMENT Patent Document

(Patent Document 1) KR10-2010-0117139 A

(Patent Document 2) KR20-0328748 Y1

(Patent Document 3) KR20-0182783 Y1

(Patent Document 4) KR20-0422322 Y1

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the present invention provides a screw-coupling type bottle cap in which a twisting groove for removal is formed and a bottle having a volume greater than the bottle cap is rotated while being gripped to apply greater force to the bottle cap, thereby easily removing the bottle cap.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bottle cap coupled to a bottle to open and close the bottle. The bottle cap includes a coupling portion including an opening formed at a bottom end thereof to enable a first fastening portion in a screw shape formed at a top of the bottle to be inserted thereinto and a second fastening portion formed therein in a screw shape to correspond to the first fastening portion to be screw-coupled with the first fastening portion, and a twisting portion configured to extend upward from the coupling portion and include a twisting groove recessed downward from a top surface thereof at a top thereof.

The twisting groove may have a triangular cross section.

The twisting groove may have a hemispherical or curved cross section.

The twisting groove may have a tetrahedral cross section.

An uneven portion may be formed at a surface of the twisting groove.

The twisting groove may further include an elastic pad at the surface thereof.

The bottle cap may further include an auxiliary coupling portion configured to extend below the coupling portion and include an insertion grove to enable another bottle cap to be inserted thereinto. Here, a plurality of holding protrusions configured to extend upward and be spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction may be formed at the insertion groove of the auxiliary coupling portion. Also, holding grooves configured to extend upward and downward and be spaced apart from each other in the circumferential direction to correspond to the holding grooves may be formed at outer circumferential surfaces of the coupling portion and the twisting portion.

The bottle cap may further include a sound generator installed at a top of an inside of the coupling portion for notifying whether the bottle cap has been removed. Here, the sound generator may be installed to be in close contact with a top surface of the inside of the coupling portion, have elasticity, and include a flow channel formed along an edge to enable air to be suctioned through a gap from the top surface of the inside of the coupling portion and a connecting groove connected to the flow channel at one side thereof.

The coupling portion and the twisting portion may be formed to be mutually couplable and separable. The twisting portion may include an insertion groove therein to enable the coupling portion to be inserted thereinto. A plurality of holding protrusions configured to extend upward and downward and be spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction may be formed at an outer circumferential surface of the coupling portion. A plurality of holding grooves configured to extend upward and downward in the circumferential surface to correspond to the holding protrusions may be formed at an inner circumferential surface of the twisting portion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by describing exemplary embodiments thereof in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bottle cap according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the bottle cap shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating an example of using the bottle cap shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a bottle cap according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a bottle cap according to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a bottle cap according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a bottle cap according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a bottle cap further including an uneven portion according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a bottle cap further including an uneven portion according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a bottle cap further including an uneven portion according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a bottle cap further including a pad according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of a bottle cap further including an auxiliary coupling portion according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a bottle cap further including a sound generator according to another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of a bottle cap according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, a bottle cap according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 3 illustrate a bottle cap 101. Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the bottle cap 101 is coupled to a bottle B, is configured to easily open the bottle B using a supporting object 90 with a corner 90 a such as a table, and includes a coupling portion 10 and a twisting portion 20.

The coupling portion 10, as shown in FIG. 2, includes an opening 13 formed at a bottom end thereof to easily insert a first fastening portion in a screw shape formed at a top of the bottle B, and a second fastening portion 15 formed therein in a screw shape corresponding to the first fastening portion to be screw-coupled with the first fastening portion. The coupling portion 10 is formed to correspond to the bottle cap 101 coupled to the bottle B and is configured to seal and open the bottle B.

The twisting portion 20, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, is configured to assist the coupling portion 10 to be easily rotated from the bottle B, upwardly extends from the coupling portion 10, and includes a twisting groove 21 recessed downward from a top surface at a top thereof.

The twisting groove 21, as shown in FIG. 3, has a triangular cross section or a V shape with an internal angle of 90° to enable the corner 90 a at an edge of the supporting object 90 to be completely inserted thereinto. As described above, the corner 90 a of the supporting object 90 is held by the top surface of the twisting portion 20 and applies great force to the twisting portion 20 and the coupling portion 10 using a small force, thereby easily removing the bottle cap 101.

Meanwhile, a bottle cap 102 according to another embodiment of the present may be formed in a structure, as shown in FIG. 4. A twisting groove 21 a of the bottle cap 102 according to the embodiment may be formed to have a hemispherical or curved cross section, as shown in FIG. 4, to be applicable to the supporting object 90 with a round corner.

Meanwhile, a bottle cap 103 according to still another embodiment of the present may be formed in a structure, as shown in FIG. 5. A twisting groove 21 b of the bottle cap 103 according to the embodiment may have a linear shape to enable an object that extends to a certain length and has a rod shape with a narrow cross section such as a pencil, pen, chopstick, or the like to be inserted thereinto. In this case, since it is unnecessary to form the twisting groove 21 b with a great depth, a height of the twisting portion 20 decreases, thereby decreasing a total height of the bottle cap 103.

Also, a bottle cap 104 according to another embodiment of the present may be formed in a structure, as shown in FIG. 6. A twisting groove 21 c of the bottle cap 104 according to the embodiment may be formed in a cross shape, as shown in the drawing, to enable an insertion position of the supporting object 90 to be selected.

In the cases shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the cross-sectional shapes of the twisting grooves 21 b and 21 c may be one of triangular, quadrangular, and hemispherical shapes.

Also, a bottle cap 105 according to another embodiment of the present may be formed in a structure, as shown in FIG. 7. A twisting groove 21 d of the bottle cap 105 according to the embodiment may be formed in a tetrahedral shape recessed from the top surface of the twisting portion 20 to enable a corner, which is a point at which a top surface, one side of an edge, and another side of the edge of the supporting object 90 such as a table meet one another, to be inserted thereinto. The twisting groove 21 d may be formed to be recessed in a regular tetrahedron shape.

Meanwhile, the twisting portion 20 with an uneven portion formed at a surface of the twisting groove 21 to increase frictional force at the corner 90 a of the supporting object 90 may be applied to bottle caps 106, 107, and 108 according to other embodiments of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 8 to 10.

The uneven portion may include a plurality of friction protrusions and a plurality of friction grooves configured to extend in a longitudinal direction of the twisting groove 21 and be spaced at regular intervals, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.

The uneven portion may include friction protrusions 31 and friction grooves 32 repeatedly formed in a sinusoidal shape, as shown in FIG. 8, may include friction protrusions 33 and friction grooves 34 repeatedly formed in a triangular wave shape, as shown in FIG. 9, and, although not shown in the drawings, may include holding protrusions and holding grooves repeatedly formed in a square wave shape.

Meanwhile, the uneven portion may include a plurality of friction protrusions 35 configured to protrude outwardly from the surface of the twisting groove 21 in a hemispherical structure and be spaced apart from each other, as shown in FIG. 10. The friction protrusions 35 may be formed at random positions or may be arranged according to a certain rule. For example, the friction protrusions 35 may be arranged in a matrix pattern arranged in rows and columns.

Also, a bottle cap 109 according to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 11, further includes an elastic pad 40 installed at the surface of the twisting groove 21 to increase frictional force with the supporting object 90. The pad 40 is formed of a material having elasticity and elastic force, and is applied or attached to the surface of the twisting groove 21. The pad 40 may be formed of rubber, epoxy, urethane, or the like.

Also, a bottle cap 110 according to another embodiment of the present invention may further include an auxiliary coupling portion 50 for coupling with a general bottle cap or the other bottle caps 101 to 109 according to the embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 12, the auxiliary coupling portion 50 includes an insertion groove 51 that extends from a bottom of the coupling portion 10 while a diameter thereof expands to enable a top of the general bottle cap 101 a or the bottle caps 101 to 109 according to the embodiments of the present invention to be inserted thereinto. Also, a plurality of holding protrusions 52 that extend upward and downward and are spaced in a circumferential direction are formed at the insertion groove 51 of the auxiliary coupling portion 50. Also, holding grooves that extend upward and downward and are spaced in the circumferential direction to correspond to the holding protrusions 52 are formed at outer circumferential surfaces of the coupling portion 10 and the twisting portion 20.

As shown in the drawing, when another bottle cap is coupled to the auxiliary coupling portion 50 of the bottle cap 110, the holding protrusions 52 are inserted into and engaged with the holding grooves. When the auxiliary coupling portion 50 is rotated, the other bottle cap coupled therebelow may be rotated.

Also, a bottle cap 111 according to another embodiment of the present invention may further include a sound generator 60.

Referring to FIG. 13, the sound generator 60 is installed at a top of the inside of the coupling portion 10 to notify whether the bottle cap 111 has been removed, is installed to be in close contact with a top surface of the inside of the coupling portion 10, has elasticity, and includes a flow channel 61 formed along an edge to enable air to be suctioned through a gap from the top surface of the inside of the coupling portion 10 and a connecting groove 62 connected to the flow channel 61 at one side thereof. An additional lid (not shown) capable of making a piping sound may be added to the connecting groove 62.

In a state in which the bottle cap 101 is coupled to the bottle B, the sound generator 60 is pressurized by a top end of the bottle B and comes into close contact with the top surface of the inside of the coupling portion 10 while a top surface thereof and the flow channel 61 are compressed. However, when the bottle cap 101 is removed, since air passes through the narrow connecting groove 62 or the lid and enters the flow channel 61, a sound is generated.

Also, in a bottle cap 112 according to another embodiment of the present invention, the coupling portion 10 including the second fastening portion and the twisting portion 20 including the twisting groove 21 may be formed to be couplable with and separable from each other.

Referring to FIG. 14, the coupling portion 10 and the twisting portion 20 are not integrated but are separately formed. Also, the twisting portion 20 includes an ingress groove having an inner diameter corresponding to an inner diameter of the coupling portion 10 therein to enable the coupling portion 10 to be inserted thereinto. In the embodiment, a plurality of holding protrusions 17 that extend upward and downward and are spaced in a circumferential direction are formed at the outer circumferential surface of the coupling portion 10. Also, a plurality of holding grooves that extend upward and downward and are spaced in the circumferential direction to correspond to the holding protrusions are formed at an inner circumferential surface of the twisting portion 20. The holding protrusions 17 and the holding grooves are formed to be engaged with one another so that the coupling portion 10 rotates when the twisting portion 20 covers the coupling portion 10 to be coupled thereto and is rotated.

When the bottle cap is fixed so that a twisting groove formed at the bottle cap is fit on an edge or corner of a supporting object such as a table and a bottle is rotated in such a way that great force is applied to the bottle cap, even a person who has a weak grip may easily remove the bottle cap with a relatively smaller force than that used with a general bottle cap.

Also, the bottle cap further includes a sound generator to notify that the bottle cap has been removed by generating a sound when removing is performed at a blind spot.

While the bottle caps according to the embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the drawings, one of ordinary skill in the art should understand that they are merely examples and various modifications and equivalents thereof may be made therefrom. Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should be defined by the technical concept of the attached claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A bottle cap coupled to a bottle to open and close the bottle, comprising: a coupling portion comprising an opening formed at a bottom end thereof to enable a first fastening portion in a screw shape formed at a top of the bottle to be inserted thereinto and a second fastening portion formed therein in a screw shape to correspond to the first fastening portion to be screw-coupled with the first fastening portion; and a twisting portion configured to extend upward from the coupling portion and comprise a twisting groove recessed downward from a top surface thereof at a top thereof.
 2. The bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the twisting groove has a triangular cross section.
 3. The bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the twisting groove has a hemispherical or curved cross section.
 4. The bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the twisting groove has a tetrahedral cross section.
 5. The bottle cap of claim 2, wherein an uneven portion is formed at a surface of the twisting groove.
 6. The bottle cap of claim 2, wherein the twisting groove further comprises an elastic pad at a surface thereof.
 7. The bottle cap of claim 1, further comprising an auxiliary coupling portion configured to extend below the coupling portion and comprise an insertion grove to enable another bottle cap to be inserted thereinto, wherein a plurality of holding protrusions configured to extend upward and be spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction are formed at the insertion groove of the auxiliary coupling portion, and wherein holding grooves configured to extend upward and downward and be spaced apart from each other in the circumferential direction to correspond to the holding grooves are formed at outer circumferential surfaces of the coupling portion and the twisting portion.
 8. The bottle cap of claim 1, further comprising a sound generator installed at a top of an inside of the coupling portion for notifying whether the bottle cap has been removed, wherein the sound generator is installed to be in close contact with an a top surface of the inside of the coupling portion, has elasticity, and comprises a flow channel formed along an edge thereof to enable air to be suctioned through a gap from the internal top surface of the coupling portion and a connecting groove connected to the flow channel at one side thereof.
 9. The bottle cap of claim 1, wherein the coupling portion and the twisting portion are formed to be mutually couplable and separable, wherein the twisting portion comprises an insertion groove therein to enable the coupling portion to be inserted thereinto, wherein a plurality of holding protrusions configured to extend upward and downward and be spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction are formed at an outer circumferential surface of the coupling portion, and wherein a plurality of holding grooves configured to extend upward and downward in the circumferential surface to correspond to the holding protrusions are formed at an inner circumferential surface of the twisting portion. 